Tuesday, February 10, 2009

A little Valentine Knitting







I am not the world's best knitter. I only know how to do one kind of stitch, but I still enjoy knitting things, so after DH was complaining about not being able to find any washcloths the other day, I decided to make him a new washcloth for Valentine's Day.


Using red, 100% cotton yarn, I cast on 30 stitches and knitted a square. I didn't actually count my rows of stitches to tell when it was a square, I just kept folding one of the bottom corners up to the top corner opposite it (left bottom corner to right top corner), until it made a perfect triangle.
Then, using a heart shaped cookie cutter as a stencil, I painted some watered down bleach all over the inside of the stencil ( one part bleach to two parts water). After I painted the heart shape onto the washcloth, I let the cloth sit for 10 minutes, before washing the bleach out in the sink and then hanging it up to dry.
I really like the way the colors turned out, because it looks like I did the knitting with two different colors, which makes me look much more talented than I really am.



A cautionary tale about knitting:

When I was a 9 or 10 year old 4-H member, I signed up for a knitting project (that was when my mother taught me the only stitch I know). The needles that my mom gave me to learn with were big fat things.
After tiring of knitting one day, I threw my needles down on the recliner that sat in one corner of our dining room. A little while later my four year old sister energetically threw herself into that same chair and ended up having her bottom impaled on one of those fat knitting needles. My mother had heard plenty of those stories about people who would have been better off if they had not removed whatever object was sticking out of them before going to the hospital, so my sister had to stand by the phone, with a knitting needle protruding through the seat of her pants, while my mom called the pediatrician. I had to stand there watching and feeling bad about my carelessness.
As it turned out, she was fine, except that it hurt. The pediatrician explained that no organs could be punctured from where the knitting needle was, and he gave my mom permission to pull it out, which wasn't all that easy.
Since then, I have always been much more careful about where I put my knitting needles.

3 comments:

Tammy said...

Oh my goodness...your story...lol! I shouldn't laugh, but I am. :)

Your washcloth is very nice! I love the idea on how you made it two colors.

Crescent Moon said...

Enough years have passed that we can all laugh about it now. She's 37 now.

*Jingles* said...

Hahahaha...As I was reading that I knew what was coming. The same thing happened to me, except it was me that sat on the needle!! My Nan left her knitting needle on the chair and it had wedged between the arm and the cushion. I too, being a young springy child...threw myself down. OUCH!! My Nan called my Mum and she told her not to pull it strait out. My Nan notified the next door neighbour to my utter embarresment and I think the doctor was called...but I'm not sure. Anyway, it was pulled out and all I had was a small red mark left. But yeah...I never leave my needles on the sofa now. I've learnt the hard way!!

Crafty Crow